A Yellow Glove
by saphronandspice
Summary: For the Artina Ficathon, from the prompt set by Charlie-Chan. Tina realises that she likes Artie. You know, like-likes him.


This story is written for the Artina Ficathon, for **Charlie-Chan**. I hope you enjoy it. :)

"Back when Tina and Artie were crushing on each other in the beginning, Artie takes off his yellow gloves to play guitar during rehearsal. He drops one of them on his way out. Tina picks it up and takes it home. While she's home she randomly slips the glove on her hand and thinks about Artie until she suddenly realizes she like likes him." (fluff?)

Thanks to **troubadette**, for the organisation of the Artina Ficathon. :)

* * *

On Tuesday, Artie Abrams had a doctor's appointment. But he forgot all about it.

The Glee kids had been having a good practise. It was the third practise after they had gained their three new members.

It had been somewhat awkward at first, trying to fit the three new members into their stage layout and routines, but all three of the football players seemed to be okay to just go with the flow, and so once Rachel decided that the best way to deal with Puck's (often sexist) comments was to ignore, they fit in just fine. To Tina, (although she knew it sounded completely cheesy) it felt as though they had gained the final three pieces of their dysfunctional Glee-family puzzle. They were now complete.

So when they were waiting for Mr. Shue to return to the room with some sheet music, they had started a completely impromptu version of Love Generation. It had started when Artie had taken off his gloves, put on his best Jamaican accent and said, "From Jamaica to the world, it's just love," and started playing the guitar along with it. Puck, surprising everyone, had brought his guitar into his lap and joined in. They were all singing by the chorus, (although they didn't all know all the words, so choked giggles were heard as someone missed a lyric or started singing the wrong verse); Matt had done the whistling parts, and Tina and Santana had started the "bum, bum, ba-da-dum-bum's." Brittany and Mike, of course, had started to a dance to the music. Quinn had been laughing so hard that tears were rolling down her cheeks when Kurt let out a particularly loud 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!" and Rachel tried to get everyone "back on schedule" while avoiding Matt's attempts to get her to dance. (Needless to say, she failed and Matt seemed surprised when she let him spin her and laughed). It felt good to see a smile on Quinn's face after everything she was going through.

This left Artie's doctor's appointment forgotten until his phone rang from his pocket. Stopping his playing, he answered it to hear his mother's voice asking him why he wasn't out the front of the school, and if something was wrong.

"Shit!" Artie's exclamation stopped Puck from playing. The singing died out and they all looked at him, kind of shocked. "I'm sorry mom, I forgot. I'm coming now."

"W-w-what's wrong?" Tina asked, moving to stand beside him. Artie put his guitar down and barrelled towards the exit, calling over his shoulder, "Doctor's appointment, I completely forgot, see you guys." He rolled out the door, passing Mr. Shue, (who had clearly been listening to them) and gave him the same explanation on the way past.

He was so preoccupied with getting out the door that he missed the fact that he'd dropped one of his gloves.

"Artie, wait!" Tina picked it up and rushed to the door, but he was gone. So Tina took the glove home, texting Artie to tell him she had it and not to freak out.

That's how Tina found herself, later that evening, sitting cross-legged on her bed and staring at the glove in her lap. It felt wrong for her to have it, like she had a sacred object in her possession. Probably because Artie needed the glove to get around comfortably, and when she had the glove, he certainly didn't. Without his gloves, Tina knew that Artie sometimes got blisters that peeled his skin and left it red raw. He never wore them for their performances, (Rachel threw a fit – "They're _yellow_. They don't match! It throws off the overall symmetry of our performance!" What that meant, Artie had no idea) or during school when he had to write in class, but Tina seemed to be the only one who ever noticed his discomfort when the blisters rubbed against the metal. So she pushed his chair as much as she could.

It always gave her a happy feeling that she was one of the few people who he actually let volunteer to push his chair. Other people did do it; Mr. Shue on occasion, Finn had a couple of times to get him away from jocks, and even Puck had one day after Artie couldn't see due to a slushie attack. But Tina knew that he never felt comfortable when they did, he just didn't know how to ask them not to. Tina was the only one, besides his family, who could push the chair with no awkwardness for both parties.

As she was thinking, Tina ran her fingers over the glove. It was soft and worn beneath her hands, but the best kind of worn; like old sneakers and jeans with patches and tatty teddy bears and Tina's blue dressing gown. There was a stray thread at the base of the glove, which Tina knew came from Artie pulling at it when he was bored or pretending to listen to Rachel-rants.

She slipped her hand into it.

She knew Artie's hands were bigger than hers, and this was confirmed by the way the glove sat sloppily on her hand. One day, after watching Tarzan, (Tina, secretly a sucker for Disney movies, had wanted to; Artie reluctantly agreed) Tina and Artie had had a Tarzan/Jane moment and put their hands together. Her hand was so small in comparison to his that he could bend the tips of his fingers over the tops of hers.

The glove on her hand now, although too big, felt warm and comforting; as if Artie was holding her hand.

And that's when she felt it. The tingles at the thought of Artie holding her hand, the way her stomach got butterflies at the mere thought of Artie's fingers intertwined with hers; the want for him to hold her hand.

_Wait, what?_

This confused Tina. Artie had been her best friend for awhile, her friend for even longer. He was guy who had been by her side, slushied with her, laughing and joking, making Star Wars references that nobody seemed to understand but her, and being helped out of dumpsters with her. The guy who had seen her in good moments, like when she was singing or dancing with Glee club; and her in bad, like the time she threw up all over his living room floor (realising the next day she had food poisoning). Did she have feelings, as in _like_-like, romantic feelings for her best friend?

Suddenly, something occurred to her. The way his hand lingered on her arm when he thanked her, how he insisted on walking her home after Glee, the way his huge smile never ceased to brighten her day, how him singing sent chills down her spine.

She followed this train of thought further. She could picture his arm around her in Glee, holding hands under the table at lunch, snuggling into him as they watched their Friday night movie on one of their couches (usually his, her house got too lonely on Friday nights due to her parents many business trips or spontaneous vacations), making out in the back row of the movie theatre; being one of those insufferable lovey-dovey couples that she hated to be around (because really? _Awk-ward_!) but found cute all the same. As the butterflies in her stomach took off as though they'd had way too much caffeine, she had her answer.

Artie, her nerdy, suspender-and-sweater-vest wearing best friend, was suddenly no longer a just friend to her. Through Artie's yellow glove, Tina Cohen-Chang had just realised that to her he was so much more.


End file.
